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Care for the bodily Teacher, but do not consider him a body || Acharya Prashant, on Zen Koan (2018)
Acharya Prashant
435 views
6 years ago
Zen
Koan
Mokujin
Enko
Body Identification
Enlightenment
Guru
Samadhi
Description

Acharya Prashant interprets a Zen koan about the teacher Mokujin and his disciple Enko. He explains that when Enko pushes a medicine cup toward his dying teacher, it represents the idea that Zen offers support and healing to the needy. However, the teacher becomes severe because providing constant support can make a person accustomed to their helplessness, removing the urge to seek true transformation. Furthermore, offering only physical medicine implies that the teacher is being viewed merely as a physical body, which is a limited and incorrect understanding of a realized being.